The entire arena fell deathly silent.
It was as if someone had hit pause on the once-noisy hall. Even the sound of breathing became clearly audible.
Hanzo, the ninja universally acknowledged as the pinnacle of hand-to-hand combat, had just... lost?
"Wh-what just happened?" Leorio asked, stammering, his mouth hanging open and his jaw nearly hitting the floor.
"Was that magic?"
"That wasn't magic. It was a rebound."
Killua's expression was utterly grave, his catlike eyes fixed on the ring.
"Lin Yan sent back every attack he'd taken, along with the force of Hanzo's final blow, all doubled. The destructive power unleashed in that instant... was enough to shatter internal organs."
In the ring, Lin Yan slowly withdrew his fist.
"Phew-"
His chest rose and fell as a visible stream of white air poured from his mouth and nose, like a ribbon of white silk that lingered in the air without dispersing.
It was the turbid air within his body.
His face was still somewhat pale, but his breathing was much steadier than before.
For him, that series of close-quarters exchanges had also been a warm-up to regulate his blood and energy, loosen his muscles, and clear his meridians.
He looked at Hanzo lying on the ground. Rather than press his attack, he simply asked calmly, "Do you want to continue?"
"Cough... cough, cough..."
Hanzo coughed painfully, every tremor sending agonizing pain through the organs in his chest.
With trembling hands, he propped up his upper body, raised his head, and stared hard at Lin Yan.
His eyes were filled with resentment, shock, and a trace of... rapidly mounting fear.
He hadn't lost his ability to fight yet.
As a senior ninja of the Hidden Cloud Style who had undergone brutal training, his willpower and physical endurance far surpassed those of